Out of the Night
by Golden Moon Huntress
Summary: A cashier working the night shift encounters a very odd group of kids. All OCs, Oneshot.


**Author's Note**

I do not own Maximum Ride.

So this was inspired by stories on the Spinning Plates series by Hellfreezer on YouTube and one in particular about bizarre late night customers. All the characters are OCs. Feel free to tell me what you think and take a guess at what the characters are.

* * *

It was a cliché, but Dana knew they were going to be trouble when they walked in.

For a start, there was ten of them.

Business had long since slowed down, it being half nine on a Saturday night, but they still had their usual trickle of drivers and long distance truckers coming through every ten to fifteen minutes. The last customer had been ten minutes ago for a coffee to go and a bagal.

So their arrival was unusual.

Five were teenagers, three girls and two boys, while the others were kids of probably under ten, the oldest of which was about Thomas's age, nine or so, and wearing a cap. Another girl looked a bit younger, six maybe, with deep red hair. The last three looked barely old enough for school, probably about five.

Great.

A bunch of teenage parents and their siblings out on some crazy long drive.

Juuuuust what she needed to finish her shift.

The tallest two, a boy and a girl with matching dark hair and dusky amber eyes in twin orange jackets almost uniform style, glanced about themselves, their eyes bouncing from table to table. Another of the teenagers, a girl slightly shorter than them with brown hair pulled back in a sharp ponytail, scanned the restaurant and then strode up to the counter.

"Welcome to Macdonalds," Dana said with a fake smile. The girl looked up at the menu above her.

"What do you guys want to eat?"

"Fish!" shouted two of the smallest ones, a boy with a Thomas the Tank Engine hat pulled low over his ears and a girl with dark curls spilling out from under her Peppa Pig hat.

The older girl sighed. "Do you sell fish?"

"We have our fish fillets," Dana replied.

"Great; we'll take six orders of those then. Oh- Hang on-" She glanced back over her shoulder at the taller two. "Do you two eat fish?"

The girl gave her a bright smile. "No thank you. Chicken."

"Fillets or burgers?" Dana asked.

"Both."

"So that's six orders of fish fillets, one order of chicken fillets, and one chicken burger so far."

"Two," said the boy.

"What?"

"Two for the chicken fillets and burger."

"Oh, you both want… both." _OK then._ "Anything else?"

"Two double cheeseburgers," said Ponytail girl.

"Alright."

"Two orders of McWings and a Double Big Mac," said the other teenage boy, who had his hood pulled up above his eyes.

"Make that two Double Big Macs," said the last of the teenagers, a girl with platinum blonde hair that looked like it had been hacked off around her ears. "And another order of fish fillets, and fries."

"Right."

God this was going to be a pain.

Ponytail girl looked at the remaining two children. "Tammy, Cleo?"

"Can I get a cheeseburger?" whispered the boy in the hat.

"Sure!"

"And French fries?"

"Of course. What else?"

He shook his head.

She sighed, looked at the menu, and asked for chicken nuggets as well.

The girl with the red hair only looked at her. She turned back to the counter. "Two hamburgers and an order of French fries."

"Okay. Is that everything?"

"Yes thank you."

"So just to check, that's seven orders of fish fillets, two orders of chicken fillets, two chicken burgers, two double cheeseburgers, two double Big Macs, two cheeseburgers, two hamburgers, two lots of McWings, one order of chicken nuggets, and three orders of French fries."

"Yes, thank you."

"And to drink?"

"We'll just get water thank you. Ten bottles."

"Not a problem." Dana leant back to take them from the fridge, stocking them up on the counter. The girl passed them out.

"Will that be everything?"

"Yes thank you."

Dana sighed. "Cash or card?"

They were damn well paying before they were given this crazy amount of food.

"Card," said the dark haired boy, stalking up to the counter and producing a card from a battered wallet. Dana turned the reader towards him. He slid the card in and tapped in the number. The reader beeped in acceptance.

"Thank you. If you'd like to take a seat, I'll have your food ready soon."

The girl in the Peppa Pig hat, tugged at Ponytail's hand. "Can we sit over there?" she asked, pointing at the table nearest the TV. Ponytail shook her head and pointed her towards a larger booth in the corner.

"There would be better."

The girl pouted but followed her.

Hers, Dana figured.

She was never having kids.

The rest of the group followed the two girls over to the booth.

The young red haired girl looked at her for a moment and shook her head before joining them, climbing up next to the boy in the cap. Dana sighed, turned, and called for Mark, wherever he had taken himself off to.

This was going to take a while.

* * *

She kept an eye on them as she worked, serving up burgers and packaging fries. They had some on standby, but nowhere near enough for an order of this size at this time.

How were kids that size meant to eat all this food anyway? More than half was going to go to waste.

Still, they had paid.

Far be it from her job description to turn them out now they had paid and since they weren't causing a disturbance.

The three youngest ones had climbed into the play area, where the girl and boy that shouted earlier were climbing on the side of the slide and the third, a boy of around the same age wearing a Paw Patrol hat, was crouched at the top, glaring around the restaurant.

It was… a little unnerving to be honest.

Dana almost begged their precious fish fillets to cook slightly faster.

The boy in the cap had pulled out a book from somewhere and curled up in the corner of the booth to read, while the red haired girl was drawing on the back of one of their children's activity puzzles.

The teens, meanwhile, seemed to have drawn together to mutter anxiously.

"- to Uncle Danny's!" the girl with the bad haircut was saying, lounging back in the booth, her arms folded over her chest. Ponytail shook her head.

"They'll have already…"

Runaways maybe.

Maybe she should call the police.

But then what sort of runaways left in such a big group and with three five year olds?

There seemed no other explanation though. Why else would they be all the way out here all on their own? They were still forty miles from the edge Glasgow, and there was little enough else out here. Certainly no hotels or hostels they might be staying at.

Dana wasn't even sure whether any of them were old enough to drive. The dark haired ones might be, she figured, just. They were tall enough, and their features were hard and cruel, but they still looked so _young_. They weren't quite her age, she figured, not nineteen, but maybe seventeen or so. Maybe. Could be teenage parents escaping a volatile home situation, she supposed, though none of them had done anything to suggest they were with one of the others.

"There's something up with them," she muttered to Mark as she packaged up the second cheeseburger.

"You want me to stick around front?"

"Please."

* * *

Finally, they had all the food cooked and piled it up onto six trays on the order counter.

"Your food's up!" Dana called with her usual fake cheer. The teens stood to fetch it, each taking a tray, and Ponytail handing the last to the little red haired girl.

"Can you carry that?"

The girl rolled her eyes and trotted back to their table. Ponytail glanced over at the younger three. "Storm! Thunder, Lightning!"

Dana glanced at the window, but they were still black, with no sign of rain.

"Food's ready!"

Dana frowned. Were those meant to be the kids' names? Seriously? Who named their kids that?

The younger three darted over in a blur of pink, blue and green, grinning and clamouring.

"I want to get fish!" shouted Peppa Pig. Thomas the Tank Engine hissed at her.

Like, literally hissed.

Like a cat.

Ponytail sighed.

"Storm, be nice. There's enough for all of you. Come on."

They crowded around her, following her back to the booth, where she directed them all up onto the bench, sitting them in a row, and dolled out two lots of the fish fillets to each kid. They tore into them like animals. Dana could have almost sworn she heard them hissing and growling.

"You want to call the police?" Mark asked. Dana shrugged.

"They paid."

Ponytail and the boy in the hood passed out the food, sharing it out across the table. The other kids snatched it as though one of the others might take it if they didn't get it fast enough – which, by the looks of it, they just might. They looked like they hadn't eaten in a month. The dark haired girl growled – yes, literally growled - at the boy Dana figured was her brother when he attempted to take one of the chicken fillets from her box instead of his own. The three youngest ones seemed to be scooping theirs in their hands and smooshing their mouths into it, smearing breadcrumbs and meat everywhere.

That was going to be a bugger to clean up.

The girl with the bad haircut, meanwhile, seemed to be explaining to the boy in the hood how to eat his burger while gulping down her fish fillets.

"Trust you to have a way to eat food," muttered the boy.

"Fine then; just let yours fall apart."

His hood seemed to twitch, fluttering above his eyes. "Maybe I will!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"Fine."

The boy set about devouring his burger, succeeding in smearing ketchup across his hands and sleeves. Ponytail girl stood up and waved an arm. "Can I get another burger?"

Well, it wasn't like she was doing anything else here.

"Sure! Anything else?"

"Another one of these," said Hoodie boy through a mouthful of food.

"Absolutely! For anyone else?"

"Two lots of chicken fillets!" called the dark haired boy.

"Can we get another three large French fries as well?" asked Ponytail.

"Sure!"

Ponytail sat down, so that seemed to be it. Dana rang it in while Mark started cooking their orders.

"Can you believe they're actually managing to eat all this?" he muttered, tossing another burger on the fryer.

"I know, right? Where the hell are they putting it?"

Maybe they were bigger than they looked under those jackets and hoodies.

The dark haired boy climbed – actually climbed, boosting himself behind Ponytail girl's back to get past her and landing with a heavy thud on the floor behind her. The back of his jacket seemed to flare upwards and outwards slightly, as though pushed out from beneath. He sprang to his feet and stalked over to the counter, holding out the card. Dana punched their order through and spun the reader towards him. He tapped it against the screen and it beeped acceptance.

"Your food-" Second round. "-should be ready soon."

He flashed her a grin, displaying unnaturally sharp teeth. Dana took a half-step backwards.

"Astra! Keep your mouth shut!" shouted Ponytail.

The boy – Astra? – gave Dana a wink and strode back to join them.

Ponytail girl stood to let him sit again this time.

"Did you see that?" Dana asked as Mark wrapped up the burger.

"See what?"

"His teeth!"

"No, I was busy."

"His teeth are like- fangs or something. Like frikkin sharpened!"

Mark stared across the restaurant at the group. "What the hell?"

"Yeah."

* * *

Dana continued to catch snatches of their conversation as they talked – the girl with the bad haircut was very loud and still going on about this 'Uncle Danny' she wanted to visit – which mainly seemed to be about places they wanted to go.

"-zoo," the dark haired girl said.

So they were headed for Edinburgh. Not many groups of teens ran away to go to the zoo though.

"Are you insane? We can't-" snapped Ponytail.

"We need those-" And then something she couldn't quite make out. "-be there too!"

"I've no interest in mine!"

"I didn't escape from that hellhole just to walk straight back into a cage."

This had to be some weird sort of role playing group. It had to be. It would explain almost everything: the weird getup, the fangs, the bad haircut - probably a wig- the weird discussion.

Except the little kids. That was still weird.

"But we need that information!"

"Look, what good's it going to do you anyway?" asked Ponytail, folding her arms over her chest. "You can't help them."

"Sure we can!"

"No, you can't! You'll just-"

There was a ding as the door swung open.

Hoodie boy half stood, twisting in place to glare at the door. Tony, a regular who came in at least four times a week, made his way up to the counter. Dana was already moving, Tony always ordered the same thing.

The kids at the booth, however, were watching him.

Hoodie boy had half stood so he could watch the door and the counter at the same time; the dark haired siblings had bunched up on their bench, shoulders tense, and Ponytail girl was still munching on her burger while keeping a watch on the counter.

It was unnerving to say the least.

"Same as always?" Dana asked.

"You know me," Tony agreed.

The dark haired girl turned back to her meal, which was apparently some kind of signal for her brother, but the other two continued watching as she prepared his coffee and burger. Ponytail finished her burger as she stared.

"Bit late at night for such little 'uns t'be about int it?" Tony asked. Dana shrugged.

"Guess they're on a trip. It's not my business; they paid." She slid his coffee across the counter and he took a sip as they waited. Hoodie boy had returned to his food, but Ponytail was still watching.

It was dedication and a half to their whole roleplaying thing.

At last Tony's burger was done and Dana wrapped it up for him. He paid, thanked her, and headed out to his truck.

Ponytail watched him leave.

Paw Patrol reached across the table to tug at her sleeve. A moment later she stood, and Hoodie boy and Bad Haircut girl stood to let the three younger children out before sitting down again. Ponytail led the three over to the counter.

"Do you have toilets here?"

Dana leant over the counter to point. "Just at the end there and turn right, you'll see the big signs."

"Thanks."

Peppa Pig looked up at her with a bright smile as she passed. Dana jumped again. Her eyes were a bright, neon green, but it wasn't that that bothered her. Her pupils were elongated, slatted like a cat's, running most of the length of her iris. A half moment later she scurried to catch up with Ponytail and the two boys, hurrying along with them. Ponytail put a hand on her back to push her in front of her with the two boys.

This was just getting weirder and weirder.

"I still don't understand why she insisted on bringing those brats with us," Bad Haircut girl announced. Having had a moment to process what she had just seen, Dana decided the little girl must be wearing contacts – which was almost as weird as the fangs thing. Who put contacts on their five year old? Didn't she get agitated?

"They're just little kids. They don't deserve to live like that," Hoodie boy replied.

"They're slowing us down! At least those two can keep up!" She jerked a hand at Cap Boy and the little red haired girl. "Those three aren't even-"

"I like them," Astra's-maybe-sister said larconically. "They remind me of Helios at that age."

Astra-with-the-weird-fangs laughed slightly. "They kinda do."

Bad Haircut huffed. "They're going to end up giving us away."

"Runaways do you think?" Mark asked.

"Dunno. Think it's some weird sort of roleplaying thing."

Which maybe meant one of them was older than they looked.

Maybe.

"-babysitter!" Bad Haircut snapped.

"No one's making you stay!" Hoodie boy shouted back.

"You're not serious."

"Of course I'm serious! You two as well!" He waved a hand at Astra and maybe-Astra's-sister. "No one's stopping you paying a so-called visit to the zoo, but I'll have nothing to do with it!"

"We should introduce you to Atlas," said Astra's-maybe-sister.

Astra nodded. "He'd like him."

"I know. That's why I suggested it."

Definitely siblings, Dana decided.

"I've spent my entire life trying to get out of that place! I'm damn well not walking straight back in!"

Cap boy's mouth moved, but Dana couldn't make out the first half of what he said. The second half, however, was "Kids don't belong in cages or deathfights."  
Hoodie boy stared at him. So did the little red haired girl. He just went back to his book. Hoodie boy glared at the table. "I'll think about it."

Astra's-probably-sister smiled, showing off her sharpened canines. It looked disturbingly predatory. "Thank you."

* * *

Ponytail girl returned after ten minutes or so with the three kids. Their faces were wet and shiny with water and the hair sticking out from under their hats looked wet, so Dana guessed she had washed their faces of all the food they smooshed into them too. She dropped them off in the kids' play area, where they immediately jumped in the ball pit to start lobbing the plastic balls at each other, and returned to the table with the other older kids. "Toilets are round there if you guys wanna clean up."

"We'll go," said Astra and probably-Astra's-sister. The two of them slid to their feet and stepped around Ponytail girl, stalking across the restaurant, him first and her at his shoulder. They moved with a chilling kind of confidence Dana had never seen – ever – and certainly not in kids of their age.

Almost like soldiers at attention, she decided.

The bathroom door closed behind them.

"Are we sure it's a good idea to be helping those two?" Bad Haircut girl asked.

Ponytail girl shrugged. "They've no more got a place to go than we do."

"How do we know we can trust them? They were working for Itex!"

"So were you," Hoodie boy said dryly.

Bad Haircut girl flushed scarlet. "I never was! Father trained me to fight, but I never worked for that hellhole!"

"Keep on telling yourself that."

She curled her lip, revealing a mouth full of fangs. Dana nudged Mark, but before he could look up Hoodie boy had cuffed her arm and muttered for her to knock it off. She scowled. "I never worked for those bastards. I never asked for what father did for me."

"Says the lucky one who didn't live in a cage."

Bad Haircut girl growled.

Actually growled, like an animal, low and rumbling in her chest.

Hoodie boy growled back.

Ponytail girl leant across the table and smacked both of them lightly around the head. "Knock it off the pair of you!"

Hoodie boy flinched slightly, but Bad Haircut girl jerked her head and two large, white, pointed ears emerged from her platinum hair, staying low to her head.

Dana stared.

Mark stared.

"Artemis! Your ears!"

Bad Haircut girl grinned and patted the ears with one hand, flattening them down again.

"New hairband. Cool right?"

Ponytail girl gave her a strained smile. "Very cool."

Definitely some bizarre roleplaying group.

* * *

Astra and probably-Astra's-sister returned from the bathroom, sliding into their seats, and Hoodie boy went with Cap boy.

"So about the zoo-"

"No."

"Aren't you even the slightest bit curious?"

"I told you, I've no interest in my-"

"Not your file," Astra's-probably-sister said.

"_Theirs_," Astra finished.

Ponytail girl went white and then red. "Don't you ever use them against me!"

"Just a thought," said Astra.

"You survived," said his probably-sister, investigating her nails.

Ponytail girl huffed and folded her arms over her chest. "You two are unbelievable."

* * *

Once the two boys came back from the bathroom Bad Haircut girl (Artemis?) and the silent red haired girl went. The giggles of the three children playing in the ballpit filled the restaurant.

Dana had decided that this was beyond her pay grade.

Well beyond her pay grade.

And definitely not part of her job description.

Whatever these kids were out here doing – whatever they _were_ \- whatever trouble they had found themselves in, it was none of her business.

Given that they weren't really doing much, Mark had wandered off to continue cleaning in the kitchen while Dana spent the time browsing Facebook with half her attention and watching the group of kids with the other half.

The red haired girl returned from the bathroom after maybe five minutes or so, but the other one, the one with the ears, remained in there.

Cap boy's cap twitched, suddenly and violently enough to knock it to the floor, revealing the short, brown pointed ears atop his head. He tensed, stuffing his book back inside his jacket and growling, loud and violent. The red haired girl grabbed his cap, jamming it back on his head and glanced at Ponytail girl, who sprang to her feet and hurried over to the counter.

"Is there another way out of here?"

"No; that's the only entrance for customers."

"For customers?" asked probably-Astra's-sister.

"That means you've got an employee exit, right?"

"Or a back area for dumpsters."

"The employee entrance is employees only," Dana said weakly as Hoodie boy swept over to the bathroom to bang on the door.

"Oy! Princess! We gotta go!"

Probably-Astra's-sister leant across the counter with a bright smile. "But surely you could make an exception." She held a hand out and slipped something into Dana's hand, curling her fingers around it. "It's very important we leave without being seen."

Dana clenched her hand around the paper something she'd been handed. She wasn't _meant_ to let customers out the employee exit – but something was telling her that maybe just this time she _should_, that it _couldn't possibly_ do any harm.

She sighed. "Alright. Alright, fine."

If it would get rid of them.

Ponytail girl hurried to fetch the three children from the play area and Bad Haircut girl appeared from the bathroom, following Hoodie boy over to the rest of the group.

Dana ducked out around the corner and led them around back, opening the door to the break room and pointing them over to the back door. "If you go right it'll loop you around the building to the car park."

"Thanks," murmured Ponytail girl, opening the door and peering out cautiously. "Looks clear. Let's go!"

Hoodie boy herded up the younger ones. As he did so, Dana caught a flash of a long brown tail whipping out from under the jacket of Thomas the Tank Engine.

Nope.

Nope nope nope.

Still not in her job description.

hoodie boy held the door open while Ponytail girl seemed almost to be standing guard over the others. The little red haired girl lingered for a moment, gazing up at Dana.

There was a funny prickling behind her eyes.

_Thank you._

She heard the voice inside her head, behind her ears, but the girl's mouth never moved.

"Cleo let's go!"

The girl spun on her heel and sprinted out past Hoodie boy to join the others. He shot Dana one last look and darted out around the door, which swung closed behind him, and then they were gone.

Only then did she look at what probably-Astra's-sister had pressed into her hand.

Three twenty pound notes.

Dana rubbed her head.

Yup.

One hundred percent definitely beyond her pay grade.

* * *

The group had left a mess at the table, and she set about cleaning it up, blasting music as she did so.

They had, as a matter of fact, managed to eat all the food they'd ordered.

How and where they'd put it all Dana would never know.

Five minutes later the door swung open again.

A group of nine large, muscular, beautiful looking men entered, led by a tall, slender, dark haired girl who looked maybe eighteen and a younger boy who couldn't be a day over ten. His deep blue eyes swept the restaurant while she swept over to Dana.

"Where are they?"

"I'm sorry, who?"

"The experiments," she spat.

Dana frowned. "Experiments?"

The boy rolled his eyes, pulled out something from his jacket and strode over, holding out his object. It was a set of photographs, showing Astra, his probably-sister, and Ponytail girl.

"Oh," Dana said, reaching out to take them and get a better look. Ponytail girl looked paler and thinner in the photograph, her hair lank and eyes sunken. Astra and his probably sister looked younger, but more lean.

She thought about the money in her pocket, how quickly the group had left, and the men currently wandering around the restaurant, peering over the counter as though they might somehow be hiding behind there.

"Haven't seen them," she said.

The girl narrowed her eerily yellow eyes. "Don't lie to us. We can smell them here."

Definitely beyond her job description.

Dana shoved the photographs back at the boy. "Haven't seen them."

The girl glanced at the men with them. "Search the place. Find them."

* * *

The men tore the place apart, snarling. Dana could have sworn she saw drooling, dripping fangs from some of them. Mark came up front to join her, and the two of them cowered behind the counter as the men overturned tables, smashed chairs, ripped open booths and scattered condoments. Dana attempted to call the police, dialling the number into her phone, but the boy simply leant across the counter, yanked it from her hands, and crushed it between his fingers, dropping the remains to the floor. "No one will ever believe you."

That was painfully true.

At last they completed their 'search' (seriously, did they really think one of those kids was hiding under a plastic chair?) and regrouped outside in front of the building. The girl put a card down on the counter. "Call us if they come back."

"Your brother broke my phone," Dana replied dumbly.

The girl raised an eyebrow. "Oh yes, so he did." She turned towards the door, bringing her heel down on the remnents of the phone as she left.

* * *

They called the police and the manager (on Mark's phone) once they left to report the incident. The police insisted that they wait to give them a statement, and then the manager stayed to take stock of the damage and check the one camera he kept active over the register while she and Mark were allowed to leave.

Dana stopped in front of her car and stared at it.

"You know, I have no idea what just happened," Mark said, unlocking his own battered Ford.

Dana opened her door. "I don't think I want to know."

Her mum and sister would never believe the night she had just had.


End file.
